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Monday, November 3, 2014

I can't believe how crafty I'm being. I'm so glad I have my crafting groove back. I only wish I could apply this to other areas of my life. I'm trying to eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight... that's not going as consistently as I would like, but I keep trying. That counts for something I guess, right.

Speaking of pie... I'm not a big pie eater, but I think these pie pieces are super adorable!! This is the October project from Paper Pumpkin. My mom sent me the kit (and a refill - thanks mom!) because my subscription won't start until next month. I'm thinking about doing a video to show you the kit and how to assemble it.

Anyway, October's kit is pie!

These adorable pie pieces hold candy. You assemble the cardboard pie pieces. Then, you stamp the sentiments onto the stickers. The stickers fold over the ends of the pie pieces in order to seal the box shut. ﻿Next comes the fun part, you get to make the pom pomp. Adhere everything down, and voilà!!!

Super adorable pie pieces to share with friends, family, co-workers. They would make perfect place cards for Thanksgiving meals.

Maybe I'm crafting more because I like the kits. They are simple (yet complex enough to hold interest), and they come with everything I need. No prep work needed!! There is something about regular crafting as well though, and I hope to do more of that soon.

I hope you enjoyed the treat!! Happy crafting!!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

It is already starting to look and feel like fall around here. The leaves are in their peak time of changing, the temperature is getting (much) colder - we already have to turn the heat on - and soups are starting to sound better and better to eat. Hurrah for crock pot meals!!

My better half was working all day, so I thought I would take some time to craft. I want to get back into stamping, creating cards, posting on my blog, doing challenges... that kind of thing. I also want to get back in the habit of doing something for me to unwind. Today was the perfect day to do that!!

I have two blogs that I follow pretty religiously, My Pink Stamper and My Creative Time. Emma from My Creative Time has a challenge up right now, and I thought I would join in the crafting fun. There is a photo of three pumpkin tins and colors. You could use the colors or photo or both... I chose to use the colors.

I bought this stamp set from Stampin Up when the new catalog came out, and I knew I wanted to emboss it. Mind you, I have never embossed anything before, so it was quite the learning experience. The main thing for me to note was that you cannot rub the image as the Versamark will smear, and you will not get a clear image.

Also, for the challenge, you had to use one My Creative Time product. While I have some things, I don't have a whole lot from Emma. I did find this super cute stamp from one of her first releases (this was back when she shipped her stamps in CD cases). It is from the "Turn That Frown Upside Down" set.

So...here is what I came up with...

Supplies Used:

Stampin' Up Early Espresso Cardstock

Stampin' Up Very Vanilla Cardstock

Stampin' Up Color Me Autumn Designer Paper

Stampin' Up Crushed Curry embossing powder

Stampin' Up Old Olive ink

My Creative Time Turn that Frown Upside Down stamp set

Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered Stamp Set

Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie Ribbon

I hope you enjoyed my fall-inspired card!! What's your favorite part of fall? Until next time!! Happy crafting!!﻿

Friday, October 31, 2014

I can't believe I have made 100 posts, but then again, I have had my blog for quite some time now I guess. I guess it is all in due time. What an awesome day to have such a milestone post! I love Halloween projects. However, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, especially because my better half does not like Halloween. This year, we have decided to be Halloween scrooge's and not hand out candy this year (except to a couple of families).

My project today is courtesy of my mom and one of her Stampin' Up friends, Michelle. They took Stampin' Up's curvy keepsake box and made some really cute stuff with it. It would be perfect to fill with treats and hand out or have as a take away for parties.

Mom says she cut the box out of orange paper and used the wood gran embossing folder to get the texture. Then, she cut some leaves from the fall fun dies and tied them onto the pumpkin with linen thread.

During an open house my mom's group hosted, Michelle created several of these boxes for inspiration. I think they are too cute not to share. To be honest, I don't know how she created these boxes. I just wanted to share in the creative juices.

I think these Halloween boxes are adorable, and she did such a good job with them. Also, just because I am in the Halloween mood, I thought I'd show you some of the most adorable trick or treaters around!

Those are my babies!! Aren't they adorable!! Happy Halloween everyone!! Be safe, and come back soon!!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

If you follow my Instagram, you know that I created a beaded spider. Well, that was just a teaser for this awesome Halloween wreath I am about to show you.

I am really into craft kits right now, and Stampin' Up has a lot of them. AND, they are all super cute. For my Halloween wreath, I used the Frightful Wreath Simply Created Kit. It comes with (almost) everything you need to create this adorable wreath.

The only thing it doesn't come with is stamps; however, there is a coordinating stamp set. To be honest, I did not really enjoy the stamp set that coordinated with it. I dug around in my collection and found these adorable pumpkins and colored them with my Copic markers.

However, the cutest part was this adorable spider! He was made with just wire and beads. I am so happy with the way he turned out. I almost didn't put him on here because I thought it was going to be too much work, but I am so glad I did. He is my favorite part of the wreath!!

All in all, this is a simple, super adorable Halloween wreath.

It is going to look so cute on my office door!! I cannot wait for my clients to see it. I hope ya'll have an awesome rest of the week!! Happy crafting!!

﻿

Saturday, October 25, 2014

I'm so excited to do my first crafty post of the year. Believe it or not, I have been (somewhat) crafting, I just haven't posted things to my site. Hopefully that is going to change. What actually encouraged me to post was My Pink Stamper. She is having a challenge where you give your project to someone who needs it. If you want to join in, go to her website and watch the video, then tag your project to social media with the hastag #mypinkstamperlauraschallenge. So, here is how my project came to be...

My mom came and visited a couple of weeks ago, and she brought her Paper Pumpkin kit. I had never heard of paper pumpkin before; however, it was so much fun. Paper pumpkin is a crafting kit. Each month, you get a new project that includes everything you need to make the project. It makes crafting easy. Of course, I looked into the service, loved every project I saw, and signed up.

As a bit of an update, I have been working and sleeping (pretty much); although, I do manage to have a life in there somewhere. My supervisor, who is my mentor and with whom I am pretty close, has decided to retire. And, I have been selected to step up into her role. While I am excited for a new challenge, I am really going to miss her. While I could go on and on about this, I won't (in this post anyway). While this is going on, we have had two other staff members decide to resign. This has been pretty hard on the staff, and we are not a big staff.

In order to bring a little something positive, I decided to give them Halloween treats!! These adorable treat bags are PERFECT for the staff!!

These adorable burlap bags hold about six pieces of candy. EVERYTHING you see came in the Paper Pumpkin pack my mom brought. You just need a stamping block. Cute, easy projects get sent right to your door every month. Who could be upset about that? ﻿

I hope you like my project and will continue to tune in. I have lots of crafty things in store!! Also, for this project I created an Instagram account. Follow me at allthingscrafty3.

See ya'll again soon!!!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Here is a fact about me: I love to read. Want a second fact? I don't do it nearly as often as I want to. I have made it one of my resolutions to spend at least 30 minutes per night reading a book of my choosing. Part of the "problem" with me reading is that, if I find a good book, I have a hard time putting it down.

That's what happened with this book. I read it in two days. I have been looking at this book for a while, but I didn't purchase it until the other day. It was worth the wait, and I am kicking myself for not reading it earlier. I laughed (out loud). I cried. Both of these things are pretty remarkable for me. I have been reading ever since I was 3, and very few books have ever made me show outward emotion. What continues to baffle me is that a book, whose primary audience is teenagers, is so full of meaning about love, life, and death.

Before I begin my "insightful" part of this review, I guess I should tell you what the book is about. The narrator is Hazel Grace Lexington. She was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer at 13, and currently has cancer colonies in her lungs which requires her to have oxygen all of the time. While attending a cancer support group, she meets Augustus Waters and so begins their story of two teenagers who fall in love, and who also happen to have cancer.

What I love about this book is, while the characters are diagnosed with cancer, they are not defined by their cancer. They are people, just people, dealing with life. Hazel and Augustus are relatable, even though they are teenagers (and I am an adult). Also, the book is full of metaphors and meaning. The best way to explain this is explaining the book title itself. The title, from what I understand, comes from a line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / but in ourselves, that we are the underlings." The line is meant to refer to the fact that our destiny is not pre-determined, that we, as people, make decisions that influence our fate. Or, that is what it has been deconstructed and overused to mean. However, the book title implies that sometimes people are the victim of their fate. As an aside, I don't like using the term victim as it implies weakness. Moving on, Hazel and Augustus' decisions did not have any impact on their cancer diagnoses. Therefore, the is fault in the universe. The universe is an inherently unjust place (kids have cancer, bad things happen to good people, etc.). The title is a nod to that fact or reality.

Another concept I particularly enjoy is this idea of "living a heroic life" or leaving an impact. At one point, Hazel refers to herself as a grenade. I think this is an interesting metaphor for life. We are all grenades. And, when we die, the aftermath will often cause pain and suffering to those around us, at least for a little while. The depth of pain depends on how close that person is to you or the blast. Many people, including Hazel, try to increase the distance between them (as the grenade) and the people that will be affected. However, the reality is that people will still be affected, there will still be damage, no matter how hard we may try to minimize the damage. Therefore, it begs the question what constitutes a life well lived. Augustus believes that he has to die a "heroic" death or his life would not matter. Hazel argues that he matters to her, and he matters to others, and that constitutes his life having meaning. This kind of goes back to the idea that we all leave imprints in the world, and, no matter how big or small, our impacts have a farther outreach than we could ever know. I think of this a lot as I work with my clients and how what they learn or take away in session with me will impact his/her relationship with his/her spouse, children, parents, friends, etc. And, I will never know how far my influence spreads.

Finally (and I only end here because this review needs to end at some point) is the idea of control. You see this most often in Augustus, who will put a cigarette in his mouth but refuses to light it as he will put the thing that can kill him in his mouth, but he will not allow it to kill him. This could be a bigger metaphor to cancer (yes he has cancer, but he will not let him get in the way of living his life). This is about separating what you can control from what you cannot control (like what the Serenity prayer says). Took often I see people allow things in their life that cause some form of pain. Whereas, if the person created some distance, s/he would not allow circumstances to affect the way s/he is living life. This kind of goes back to "the fault in our stars argument." Yes, people are dealt poor hands and the universe isn't fair, but the way you deal with what is given to you determines the quality of life you will have. Another line from the book is something along the lines of "the mark that humans leave are often scars" as well as another line that says, "You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who does the hurting." Again, we are all going to leave marks on the world, and the only thing you get to chose is what kind of life you will lead.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

In the spirit of making resolutions, I thought I would share some of my crafty goals for 2014.

Obviously, my main goal is to get my business up and running. I want to break it down into smaller, obtainable, measurable goals. So, here's the breakdown:

Put up a new wreath twice per month on etsy.

Blog three times per week.

Post on facebook twice per day

I guess we will see how this pans out. I plan on really getting down to the nitty gritty this weekend. I have been focusing on personal goals for the past week or so. Now, I feel like I can get into the business head space.